Newsletter

Hail August Persons

Hi achternaam,

Holy sheets! I was listening to the weather report and they touched on Victorian water storage and the dam capacity. They reported that we had a low rainfall over the last two months. That has seen dam capacity drop to a level where the firing up of the "White Elephant" desal plant near Phillip Island is close to being triggered.

Now you all know the old adage - "If you don't like the weather in Victoria...Just wait a couple of hours". June, July and August have been 12 to 16 degrees each day and it's precipitated it down most of them. No four seasons in a day this winter.

As luck would have it, "the next couple of the months are the wet ones" the helpful reporter reassured us. "The dams should fill then." Beauty!

You might have gathered from the Peek in the Shed section, Mrs Strapz' T3 Moto Guzzi is getting a bit of a spruce up. It's a wonderful Zen time in shed land, albiet a bit chilly. Bikes are such nice things to fix up. I've seen a few cars getting the big fix lately and the owners have needed half an acre of shed space for doors, diff, windscreens and wheels before they consider where the chassis fits. The compactness makes glamming up a bike so joyous.

As the project comes to completion I'm wondering what I can conjour up as an excuse to avoid the landscaping that still needs to be finished. My back aches at the thought of it! Once DR Zed has had a wash I'm about fecked.

Another Peek in the Shed

I have developed a love hate relationship with the airbrush kit I bought a few months ago. Tidying up a badly chipped frame or ratty headlight shell without having to rip the whole shebang to bits is now made pretty easy. But... the bloody thing is more temperamental than a 3 year old.

It needs love and attention every couple of minutes to keep it from spitting the dummy. The little paint pot loves to fall off at Murphy moments, splashing black paint everywhere, making a frustrating mess and a torrent of "shed words". Despite learning to hold it with my little finger the prick of a thing still takes takes a dive.

It does a great job though and I'm improving my technique. Like most of these jobs, the next time will be much easier!

The 'Vague Liar' speedo and tacho were pretty time worn and dirty inside. The speedo had something rattling about inside and one of the retaining bolts was RS. The little smart arse in my head warned that - "There be devils in there!". Dr Google was consulted and if some of those "Bell Ends" could fix a speedo, I could, couldn't I? What could possibly go wrong?

Gently prising off the top bezel while preserving the soft metal's shape was the key. The internals all slid out easily. The dirt was a fine film of oil which came off without big daubing marks left on the dial faces (which I was expecting). The rattle was an old bulb floating around inside. I'll bet that was a mystery for the last owner.

	After The external and internal bezel needed love. A little gentle panel beating, filing and sanding and out came my cranky little airbrush mate to make them more than presentable again. Reassembly and repair of the fixing bolt was a doddle, the top bezel peened over easily and byjingo, they look quite reasonable. It was a lot easier than I ever imagined.
Before

Another great leap forward came from popping LED bulbs in the idiot light bulb holders on the dash. The extra brightness really spruces it up. Your's truly never grew up with the troublesome indicator jiggers and turning the buggers off is not a strong point in my riding skill set. At least now the idiot might see the idiot light. I did however leave the old style bulb in the highbeam indictor. Having a really bright blue light in my field of vision at night is pretty uncomfortable. DR Zed has a craftily placed square of black duct tape covering most of it, allowing only the glow to fan out from the sides. The seat got a bit of TLC in the sewing room and was recovered by me and Jodie, our sewing superstar. For a first effort we are all impressed. A new set of Ikon shocks were thrown on. Everything polishable was polished. Scrawn has the tank and side covers (he's not the cranky little airbrush) giving them his expert attention. A metallic yellow green not too dissimilar to the V7 Sport colour and a sticker design of her own design will add the finishing touch. A Saturday morning was spent errr... 'debating' the decal pattern design. The more complicated we got the more obvious it became that less is more wins again. A roll of whiteboard pinstripe tape left over from some long forgotten scheme was pressed back into service. It was a fabulous way of 'nutting out' the final design. Diagonal, converging and bold curves all looked shit. Simple thin parrallel lines along the side of the tank pulling the eye to the original badges was so logical. My hope is that when it's done it will leave a suggestion that the factory could have released this look back in '76.

 Avduro LE

To help mark the 20th Anniversary we are putting together a limited edition set of Avduro Pannierz. We'll use the same canvas but they will be in an Outback Ochre colour. There are a few special touches and a couple of experiments that we'll let you in on a bit later, once I've shaken them down.

I'm out testing them at present and we will be offering them for sale in the next few weeks.

Naturally, past owners get preference to adopt a pup from the batch. At this stage we expect a litter of 50 sets.

Giz a yell if you'd like to to be kept in the loop - email

Disappointed in Law Enforcment.

I was crawling along behind a SOC (silly old c...odger) the other day. He was dawdling at 20kph below the speed limit holding up a conga line of pissed off motorists.

As we passed a roadside sign reassuring us that Police were 'Enforcing Speed', I wondered where they Fk they were. I fully expected a highway patrol copper standing by the road and waving their arms like a member of Marquez's pit crew urging the bugger on!

So much for enforcement!

Thrashers Chair Smasher

The 30th Terrifying Trek is all done bar the repairs. I drove to Tontine's on Thursday night and knocked off the the 'Baby Ray' for the weekend, striking out for the rally site on a chilly Friday morning.

I snuck around the back way from Braidwood to Marulan then via the Swallow Tail Pass to the Wombeyan Caves road, jagging north to the festivities. The road in is basically in two sections. The smoother faster section to the three way junction with a couple of surprise 'woops' and sneaky potholes. The rockier, often off-camber second half can be the terrifying bit depending on the season, the care it's had or the bike yer on. Johnny Diesel (not his real name) on a VFR with grandson and camp gear on the back naturally made tougher work than me on a borrowed Tenere.  Sidecar outfits were another matter. Not far into the second section I came across an outfit that had speared off the track and down the embankment a few metres. After the requisite head scratching a battered 4by turned up powered by Thrasher and Fireman's grin. Hugs and back slapping out of the way we set to dragging out the chair. A few metres up road a second outfit in a more precarious position had to be left as is and more gear got from the shed. As this was eating into drinking time I left the guys to the second rescue, they had more than a quorum. An hour later Thrasher's Thunderbirds returned to camp looking for their 'rescuee'. "Nup, we haven't seen him" preceeded a quiet and frightening realisation that he'd speared off the track again and could be in serious trouble. We sped back up the track, the Fireman and I running through scenarios, rescue plans and peering off the side of the track. Getting pinned under an errant BMW R80/6 and Velorex chair wasn't a healthy prospect.

Luckily Mike was found wandering back up the track a couple of K's from where he was left to ride for the rally site. While the 4x4 went up hill to turn around he'd lost control, had a bigger prang than last time, gone further down the edge and laid in the bush as the vehicle trundled past back to camp.

This recovery was gonna be a major production involving a trailer and series of lifting blocks. How the hell the whole shebang didn't roll on top of him and do serious damage is still a mystery.

Saturday morning started with thick frost but panned out to a fabulously sunny day. The evening entertainment has seen a step back from the huge chest thumping explosions of previous years, the modern world beign what it is. Registering on Seismographs in Canberra is not going to end well. An equally impressive pro-level fireworks show directly over head capped off a brilliant day.

Congrats again to Fireman, he's got a perfect score, 30 rallies and 30 badges!

 Triumph 765 Cap, Just Add Feather

I'd love to get an insight into the machinations of the wheeling and dealing that saw the other Euro Brand snaggle the Moto2 engine supply rights. As lapsed Tiger owner, I'm a bit excited about the prospect of a swarm of angry triples banging fairings in 2019. It's a huge leap of confidence for a seriously nice motor with a strong reliability record. As they say; 'Racing improves the breed'. Woohoo! Surely that must mean a new Tiger is in the pipeline. Lets' hope they can get the weight and seat a bit closer to the ground for us short-arses.

Here's a couple of you tube WTFs.

Sorry Harley Riders it's your turn.

	And in contrast
And some people just should not be out there.	And others for their own good

Newbie I've come across this neat little Exped packing bag. It's a perfect fit for the bottom or top half of one of our Pannierz. So water resistant I reckon they are close to totally waterproof, more than adequate for inside bags. At 40 grams and with a full length sealing zipper, it's a winner. I used it on a recent trip and can't commend it highly enough. Click here, go on ya know ya want to.

That's about all I have to write at ya for now.

Copyalater, Andy